Tess of the D'Urbervilles Analysis

These two colors come up all over the place in Tess, frequently together. OK, having made that observation, let's look at a few examples, and think about why Hardy might have considered those color...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles takes place in the late 19th century (a.k.a., the Victorian period, or during the reign of Queen Victorian, 1837-1901), in an area of England to the southwest of London. A...

The narrator of Tess of the D'Urbervilles gives us what critics call a "sympathetic inside view" of only two or three characters: Tess (of course), Angel, and, sometimes, Alec. We're frequently all...

Tragedies typically tell the story of a great or important protagonist whose ambition causes their fall from happiness. Well, that ain't quite the way it works in Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Tess is...

Yeah, we know. Those are not two adjectives that normally describe the same tone. But Thomas Hardy doesn't play by your dang rules. He's a rebel.So, when the narrator is describing the landscape, h...

Yup: even though this is a Victorian novel with all the long skirts, horses and ridiculous gender norms to prove it, Hardy keeps it simple.Some of the vocabulary may be difficult, but that's only b...

"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is the name of the heroine... kind of/sort of. There's a lot of discussion about what Tess should be called, and the change in her last name from the common-sounding "Du...

… Poor wounded name! My bosom as a bedShall lodge thee. – W. ShakespeareThe epigraph is taken from a play by William Shakespeare called Two Gentlemen of Verona (I.ii.115-116), and in the play,...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is 100% tear-and-groan-inducing tragedy (see "Booker's Seven Basic Plot Analysis" if you don't believe us). But it's not a traditional tragedy: Tess's fate is caused not b...

Starvation looms for the Durbeyfields. But they find out they have noble blood.Jack Durbeyfield learns from the local parson that he's actually descended from the ancient, noble family of the D'Urb...

Tess's family is tough shape financially, so her parents send her to ask for help from their distant "relatives," the D'Urbervilles.Typically, the protagonist in a tragedy is ambitious, and tries...

Tess is raped by Alec, and she moves away from home to escape her past and start a new life.Tess falls in love with Angel, and though she tries to tell him about her past, she's unable. After they...

Hardy had a difficult time finding a publisher for Tess of the D'Urbervilles because of all the sexy stuff. (Source: Dolin, Tim, ed. "A History of the Text."Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Womanb...

There's a whole lot of sex in this novel. In fact, the novel was considered too risqué when it was first written, and Hardy had a hard time finding a publisher willing to print it. He finally had...

William Shakespeare. Alec whistles "Take, O take, those lips away" from Measure for Measure. (9.29)Walt Whitman. "Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, / How curious you are to me...